Adam, Eve, Apes, & Evolution

In the beginning was nothing. From nothing eventually came the Universe. Then, billions of years later, life evolved from lifeless matter. Over hundreds of millions of years, simple forms of life slowly evolved into more complex forms of life. Worms became fish. Fish became amphibians. Amphibians became reptiles. Reptiles became “lower” mammals. Lower mammals became ape-like creatures. And, as the story goes, ape-like creatures became humans. Is this really man’s family tree? Or, is this evolution’s elaborate lie?

The fact is, we did not evolve from animals by time and chance over billions of years. According to the Bible, on the very same day of Creation that God made land animals (day six) He specially created two human beings, Adam and Eve (Genesis 1:24-28). Adam and Eve did not arrive after millions of years of evolution. They did not evolve from hair-covered, knuckle-dragging, grunt-speaking creatures. Their ancestors were neither Neanderthals nor Hobbits. “Lucy” was not their mother, nor was some club-carrying caveman their father.

When recording Jesus’ genealogy, Luke referred to Christ as being a descendant of Adam (Luke 3:38). But from whom did Adam, the first man, descend? The Bible calls Adam the “son ofGod” (Luke 3:38). The first person did not come from a primate. Adam’s father was not Big Foot or a babbling baboon. The first couple did not evolve from gorillas, gibbons, or orangutans. Adam and Eve were created “in the likeness of God” (Genesis 5:1; 1:26-27). What’s more, as humans and descendants of Adam and Eve, the Bible calls all of us “the offspring of God” (Acts 17:29). (How awesome is that!)

As God’s offspring who were created in His image, man is very different from any of God’s animal creation. This was made very clear in Genesis chapter one when man was given the ability to “subdue” and “have dominion” over all of the animals. Humans are on a higher level than all the animals because God created us more like Him and less like animals. In Genesis chapter two, once God brought all of the animals before Adam to be named, “there was not found a helper comparable to him” (2:20). So God created a human woman, not a monkey, for man to marry. Once again, God was showing man how different he was from animals.

But aren’t apes and humans a lot alike? Evolutionists assume that humans and apes are evolutionary cousins because of various similarities, including similarities between human and ape DNA. However, similarities in DNA(or internal body structures, organs, or whatever else) do not prove ancestry. Creationists have long known of the similarities between animals and humans. In fact, such similarities (even on a small cellular level) should be expected among creatures that drink the same water, eat the same food, breathe the same air, and live on the same land. But similarities are just that—similarities. Evolutionists interpret these similarities to mean we all share a common heritage, yet they cannot prove it. These similarities more accurately point to a grand Designer who chose to make some animals (like monkeys) more similar to men than other animals (like chickens, salamanders, and worms).

The truth is, man has always been different from monkeys, and he always will be. From the very beginning, God created man with the ability to speak. Since that time, humans have carried on billions of conversations. (When was the last time you heard the monkeys down at the zoo conversing with one another with words?) Unlike animals, humans are highly creative. Man has built spaceships that travel 240,000 miles through space to the Moon; he has made artificial hearts for the sick; and he continues to construct computers that can process billions of pieces of information a second. Animals, on the other hand, cannot do such things because they lack the creative ability that God gave only to man.

Although many other differences between man and our alleged animal ancestors could be listed, remember also that God gave man a soul that the Bible says returns to Him when we die (Ecclesiastes 12:7). Such a statement is never made about animals. No ape was ever called “the son of God,” but Adam was (Luke 3:38). Humans are the only physical beings on Earth that the Bible says possess an immortal soul given by God—the Father of Spirits (Hebrews 12:9).

Never forget how special you are to God and how different He made you from the rest of His creation. Adam did not descend from apes. God did not make you out of monkeys. The Bible says, “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Genesis 2:9).

*Please keep in mind that Discovery articles are written for 3rd-6th graders.

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